


Everything has an expiration date

by Edipo



Category: Xiaolin Showdown (Cartoon)
Genre: Bad English, Chack, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/M, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, My First Fanfic, My First Work in This Fandom, Slow Burn, black hair jack
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-02-22
Updated: 2017-03-29
Packaged: 2018-09-26 08:08:43
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,392
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9875483
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edipo/pseuds/Edipo
Summary: Jack has been away from the showdown for six year while trying to become somebody worthy of Chase Young and his respect. What will happen when they meet again? Love will bloom or Jack hard work had been in vain?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * A translation of [Todo tiene fecha de caducidad](https://archiveofourown.org/works/9874208) by [Edipo](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Edipo/pseuds/Edipo). 



> Hello guys! This is my fist fic of chack and also my fist fic in English, my nature language is Spanish! Hehe, well if some of you can correct me, I would rally appreciate it! Also, I want to thanks google translate which help me a lot in most of the translation (yeah my translation is not good), anyway, if someone of you speak Spanish you can read the original version in here http://archiveofourown.org/works/9874208/chapters/22149881. I´m only going to upload the English version in this site, FFnet is not my favorite place. 
> 
> Also you can find me in Tumbrl as betsunichan were I upload drawing of Jack in crossdresing (´cause I like it) and other stuff.

It had been six years since the last time Jack had participated in a Xiaolin Duel, and less than five years since he had completely withdrawn from the Heylin side. Now, at his twenties he ran into his old Shen gong wu detector and some bots he had left half finished in his old room in the mansion of his fathers in China. Yes, time had passed.

Jack sat on his flat table and played with a portion of his obsolete jacksbots. He loved those robots with all his heart (they were his pride) but now that he saw them, after so long, he understood why they were so easy to defeat, as always, Jack's ego and the appreciation he felt for his creations clouded his judgment. He let out a sigh and looked around, discover that his parents had not moved a single thing from their respective place since the last time he visited. Jack was eager to go back to the days when he was a kid playing to be a super villain with magic toys, not that he had stopped to want world domination, he thing was that he right now tried a more mundane and magicless method.

He looked at his Shen gong wu safe box, that obviously had been looted, now he regretted not have taken the monkey staff with to the United States. When he had gone to United states for him sabbatical of six-month away from xiaolin showdowns he had decided do not take any Wu with him and stay away from any kind of magic stuff, he wanted to clear off his mind of magic shit and find the inspiration he needed to invent something great and awesome that would make Chase young to be impress of the boy. But then those six months turned into six years and by the time had passed he still was´t able to create something good enough to impress Chase so Jack could be his apprentice. 

Jack looked up at the ceiling and let out a long sigh, "I'm too old to be a disciple of anyone." The time to became Chase's disciple had expired, now he surely was older than when Chase took that dragon soup that gave him his powers . That's why he had returned to his laboratory looking for his Shen gong wu detector, it was now or never, if he waited longer he could not go back to the Xiaolin showdowns.  
Jack got back to his feet, took some junk with himself, and went to his main laboratory in the United States. There was a lot of thing to do. The first one was to get the detector to determine ahead the time when and where a Shen gong wu would be activated, it had to stop being a damn detector of magical activity to become an alarm. Jack was smart, he knew he could do it, after all there was always a mathematical formula to explain the behavior of a natural phenomenon, why there was not one for magic? Shen gong wu weren’t like earthquakes, and he believed that they didn´t spontaneously and without previous warning active it selves, maybe they let leaks some of their magic before activated.  
==========================================================================  
"shit! how in hell I used to do this ?" Jack grumbled.

"Hey, Spicer," a young man coming out of the restroom called out with a smile. He walked over to the sink and looked at Jack with a twist of his mouth. "What the hell's on your face?"

"Make-up. Eyeliner to be more exact." Jack took a make-up towel and wiped out the make-up line from his face. When he was fifteen he could draw this stupid line under his eyes without a single problem and in less than a minute, but now he had the pulse of an old man with Alzheimer's.

"And why do you want that?" Simmon, Jack co-worker and maybe only friend insisted to know. "Are you going to a costume party?" He guessed, hoping that was the answer, though knowing Jack and the dates that wasn´t probable. 

-I'm going to meet with some guys from my adolescence- replayed Jack, looking at his self into the mirror, thinking of looking for in youtuve a tutorial for eyeliner. 

"A reunion party with costumes? That´s strange, dude!"

Jack lowered his eyes and sighed heavily. "Yes and no." He lifted his face and looked at Simmon. "When I was younger I used to a Goth, my acquaintances and I weren´t common boys, we were something ..." He paused to think for the most appropriate word to describe them, "extravagant." Yeah, we were weird kids.

Simmon narrowed his eyes - What is a Gothic?  
“As a darketo, those guys that dress themselves all in black darks, they want´s to be vimpires but they aren´t. Like the kids that appear in Southpark cartoon, the ones that invoked Allan Poe but more cool “Jack didn´t wanted to spend his saliva explaining what a gothic to a bored nerd likes simmon is. Anyway, he have changed a lot since the last time he saw them and maybe they weren´t able to recognize him if he go as himself- I want them to recognize me. I had changed a lot since the last time I saw them "He separated from the sink " So I have to do something to give them a clue of who I am .

"What about a: Hello, I'm Jack Spicer, Do you remember me guys? I was the weirdo of the class" He mimicked Jack's voice as he washed his hands.

Jack put a hand to his eyebrows. "Simmon, that's not dramatic at all."

"Jack Spicer, you're the strangest, socially lacking abilities and dorky guy I have ever know, I´m pretty sure that as child or as a teenager you were a laughable idiot and nobody liked you. If you want to reconnect with your classmates and impress them, please do not dress like a pseudo satanic or vampire, poor imitation of Angel of buffy vampire hunter, and do not make that ridiculous line over your cheek. You can show before them like the teenager with self-esteem problems that you and me know you were or you can show as Dr. Spicer, level three researcher at X Institute and demonstrate that beside everything that had happen before you are right now way better that any of them "Simmon shook his hands and stared at him.

"The voice of the experience has spoken, I understand why you always carry drones to your old classmates meetings -

Simmon smiled and raised his middle finger. Jack laughed. 

 

Jack looked at his wardrobe with annoyance; he had nothing to wear for the next Xiaolin Showdown. Since when did he only wear geek shirts with comics, movies or physics jokes? Where were the cool cloth? What had happened to him? He could not go to the next showdown surrounded by his robots with an shirt of Albert Einstein sticking out his tongue and some jeans. Come on, who was him? The nerdy and lame Lex Luthor of the new super man movie? The only kind of cool stuff in this closet were his sleeveless shirts, but he couldn´t wear them ´cause he doesn´t want to Chase or any of the Xiaolin looser that to know that he had a fucking dragon tatoo on his right arms, a dragon very similar to Chase in his dragon form. He cursed the dam day he thought it was a good idea to have a tattoo of dragon Chase in his arm! If anyone of them saw it, they will grossed out and surely Kimiko and Pedrosa are going to laugh at him.

He put both hands over his face and signed pretty heavy, then he shot a glance to his shoes, they were boring shoes that doesn´t shout "I AM A DAMN VILLIAN". He had some work boots, nothing cool, also several pairs of sneakers, some crocs and two or three pairs of slippers. Damn the day he discovered that he could go in his pajamas to the lab!

On the other hand, it had been years since he had stopped wearing blacks coats, mostly because the creepy guy who harassed him during his early years of college used one too, and always occupied that garment as a pretext to get close. Besides, where he lived it has fucking hot and not cold enough to wear a coat. Know he didn´t have any. How could he appear before the Xiaolin looser without a black coat? He needed to buy a new one? He raised a black leather jacket, it was a cool and elegant design, but it was not something that would wear a villain like himself. He throw onto bed behind him and the jacket fell on his face. What kind of villain was he now, anyway? Well that doesn´t matter, He really need go shopping-


	2. Chapter 2

“Why are we in Hot Topic?” Ginna asked, Jack's student and personal slave.

 

"Because I have to buy cool clothes so I could look like a mean Mother fucker."

 

"And why am I coming?" Simmon said. There was no worse-dressed person than he.

 

"But you know about comics and movies, so you are my image advisor.

 

“And me?”  Ginna asked, shivering at Jack's inquisitive look.

 

“You came because you will tell me if my butt is seen .... Wow! Look at this necklace. "Jack took a black leather necklace with studs and placed it on his neck. “How I look?”

 

"It's great, Dr. Spicer," Ginna said and Simon shook his head. Jack lowered the collar and placed it on his shelf, visibly disappointed.

 

"Jack, I do not think you'll find what you're looking for in this store “ Simmon looked disdainfully at the place.

 

“What? Why not? I love this store since I was a kid, it has many great things! - defended Spicer by taking another leather necklace from a display case.

 

“That’s the thing! You are not a Kid anymore” Simmon snatched it from his hands. “This is thing yelling to everyone: “hey, I have attention problems, please look at me.” You're not that kind of attention Whore anymore”. Simmon returned the necklace to his place and said “ What you really want is to prove that you are a bastard in time and form, and stop being the child with the delirium of greatness and be a villainy you were”. He emphasized the last word by simulating quotes with his fingers “If you want to look like a villain you have to look imposing, elegant and showsauthority.” Simon closed his fist in a dramatical way and stared into Jack's eyes and said .” There's nothing like that in this store”.

 

Ginna glanced nervously between the two men, waiting for Jack's tantrum. For his part, the latter twisted his mouth thoughtfully. Without knowing it Simmon had described Chase: an imposing man, strong and elegant (All in one package). What can Jack do to look like the lord. Heylin? The redhead was not naturally graceful or elegant, even though he had born with a golden spoon in his mouth. Well he can be that entire thing if he has to and it is necessary, after all he would not survive the boring events which his parents sponsored if he wasn´t able to. Jack looked around for something that would make him look imposing in that store full of teenagers in black clothes.

 

 

"What do you think of this ring?" Ginna interjected nervously at Jack's apparent calm, because the redhead was never but never calm so that should be something bad. "This one has a pretty skull," the girl smiled. Both men watched in silence and evaluated the attachment.

 

"I love skulls" Jack smiled taking the ring.

 

For his part Simmon shook his head and said “The rings do not go well with the gloves, you decide, the gloves or the rings, but never the two together.

 

"It's true, Dr. Spicer always wears gimlets," Ginna returned the ring to it spot.

 

Jack rolled his eyes “Well, ok, but I want something with a skull like… that t-shirt over there”

“Skulls are not stylish”

" Come on! I want a skull in my outfit" Jack muttered with a pout. Soon Ginna showed to each of them the items in the store that had a skull, in the end, Simon and Jack agreed to buy a black leather belt with a gold skull buckle.

 

 

Before Jack decided to buy more at the store, Simmon suggested that they hold a meeting at food zone in the mall to define the "villain" aspect that jack wanted. The lesser odds of losing an hour, or even more, in buying each accessory of Spicer outfit.

 

 

 

"Why don’t you wear your lab cloth?, Dr. Spicer, You can go as an evil scientist” Ginna Suggested.

"No, no, I want to look impressive, not like a pathetic lab rat.

 

"First things first, Jack, you cannot go all in black, you are going to go to an ex-classmates meeting after all, not a funeral, you have to offer some visual diversity.

 

“And what if I use different tone of black?

 

“No!, Jack, no! You can only wear one, maximum two, black garment, but not all.”

 

"And what do you recommend?"

 

“Why don´t you wear to suit?, Dr. Spicer, Men look more handsome when they wear suits”.

 

"Ginna's right. Lex Luthor wears a suit; he's smart and uses robots.”

 

Jack thought what Ginna said, she was right, a suit fitting would highlight his figure and make him look glorious. He could seen himself commanding his robots in a red suit and a black shirt. He could look as good as James Bond, eccentric as Ironman and imposing as a mobster. That reminded him of Panda Bubba, he did not want to look like that fat guy. In addition, the suits were not at all comfortable and will greatly restricted their movement, not to mention how expensive it will be washing the suit, worse, it could ruin itself and would have to buy another one. Jack had a lot of money but he liked to waste it in useless things, he would rather use the money for robot parts or the banana pudding, but not for ridiculous costumes.

 

“It's not my style” Jack said.

 

"You're right, there is not a single fiber of elegance in you," sighed Simmon.

 

“Doctor, you must show your tattoo, that will make you look intimidating.”

 

"She’s right,  you can wear short sleeves or a sleeveless shirt.”

 

"No, impossible, I do not want to show my tattoo to those looser. Besided Shirtless shirt are too out of style"

 

"But that will makes you look intimidating." Ginna insisted but Jack Shoook his head “ Al rigth! Why don’t you go for a rude look? Like a motorcyclist. Many interns and students are afraid of Dr. Spicer.”

 

Simmon raised an eyebrow. "That's because they do not know Jack."

 

"I like the hard-looking thing.What do you propose Ginna?” interrumped Jack.

 

"Forget it Jack!, you're softer that bread in milk or a banana pudding. Do you remember when we went to the Six Flags terror festival? You screamed like a little girl on the roller coaster, and you when a guy dressed like a Zombie appeared you hid behind maggy, my posdoc, and she is little woman. Jack, you used a 1.60 meter girl as a human shield against a guy dressed as a zombie.”

 

“What do you expect me to do? The guy had an electric saw and came out of nowhere; my survival instinct is very strong.”

 

"Of course ..." Simmon folded his arms and rolled his eyes.

 

"I want to see myself as a tough guy” Jack .

 

"Which you are not."

 

"Dr. Spicer is awesome," Ginna interjected, "when you get angry you're really scary."

 

"Well, we'll stick to the rude style." Simmon said making Jack and Ginna smile.

 

After defining Jack's outfit rules, the group visited stores the rest of the day looking for what Jack needed to look like a Villian.

============================================================== ========================

 

After an afternoon of shopping, Jack left the bags in the room of his apartment and went to his room. "Well, I still have time," he said to himself after looking at the new detector of Sheng gong wu. According to the device the new Wu will be activated within 18 hours, which gave him enough time to plan his grand entrance. He could no longer introduce himself as "Jack Spicer, boy genius" and was definitely not going to introduce himself as "Jack Spicer, Master of Robotics and Researcher Level 3."

 

 

 And speaking of entrances, Jack ran a hand through his hair and looked at himself in the mirror. Her physical appearance was boring without the red eyes and hair, with his black heir and blue eyes he was any guy. There was nothing special about him. He wanted to dye his hair, but if he did he would have to dye his beard too. After thinking for a while he decided that he will take it off.

 

 

Jack went to the bathroom to take a quick shower, when he took off his clothes he took a quick look in the mirror. Jack was no longer the scantily clumsy boy he used to be, and as Ginna had said, it might prove to be a intimidating guy to a stranger. After all, he was a tall man with 1.87 meter of stature, his face was masculine. Jack raised both arms and strengthened it, he had never stopped to do Yoga and figure skating and he had supplemented them with little of CrossFit twice a week so he now had defined his muscles that he used more than ever. After all it wasn’t a bigger sin that be a gay man out of shape, so Jack always does his best to look good. Jack's blue eyes went through to his tattoos in both arms, in fact they were his greatest pride and shame at the same time, although he did not regret having them despite all the pain he suffer for them (He cried in the tattoo store and was mocked by the personal) they were really important for him: they showed him what he wanted and what he has been. But now he doesn’t feel comfortable showing them to the monks or the hyelin. He hugged himself and looked away from the mirror, one of those tattoos reminded him that he wanted to be loved and respected by Chase Youung, that's why he had a dragon who looked like him, but at the same time reminded him that he had been brainless fanatic for Chase, who in some way hate him. He was sure that when he showed the dragon tattoo to the monk they will put the pieces together and ridicule him. Jack shook his head and let out a snort before he shrieked. "Who cares about those losers? I am the incredible and extraordinary Jack Spicer, I do not need your acceptance. I'm not a child anymore!”

 

 

Jack stared back at the blue eyes of his reflection, he could lie all he wanted and said that he doesn’t care Wuya or the monks will think about him when he come back. If it was true, then why wasn´t he return to the showdown sooner?. Jack asked himself when he had lost all his self-confidence. Before he went to the showdown all the time and he didn’t matter he could win or not, actually, he always believed he was able to win the Wu it didn’t matter who was his rival, even in his constant defeats never discouraged him to go and try. He tried even though  he knew everyone considered him a joke; no!, Jack shook his head; rather he did not believe the negative words that others told him and if he do it was only for a short time.  

 

"Oh!" He shouted to get all those negative thoughts out of his mind and turned to take his shower, it was useless to continue thinking about the past and what had happen, those things were in the past and there was nothing he can do about it!  It was better to plan his grand entrance in the next showdown.


End file.
